A Swat team raided rapper Sean Kingston’s rented South Florida mansion on Thursday and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that a lawyer says stem partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home.
Broward County detectives arrested Janice Turner, 61, at the 1,300-square-metre home in Southwest Ranches, a Fort Lauderdale suburb which is home to celebrities and professional athletes, including Dwayne Johnson and Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill.
The sheriff’s office said the investigation is ongoing and declined to release specific details about the charges against Turner or whether her 34-year-old son is also a target.
Local media reported Kingston was out of town and was not present during the raid.
Federal court records show his mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing more than $160,000 and served nearly a year and a half in prison.
“People love negative energy!” Kingston said in an Instagram post on Thursday which was later taken down. “I am good, and so is my mother! … My lawyers are handling everything as we speak.”
Robert Rosenblatt, a lawyer representing the rapper and his mother, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel: “These are fine people, and I’d be surprised if the allegations were true.”
Florida Department of Corrections records show Kingston is on two-year probation for trafficking stolen property. Reporters at the home could see authorities filling a loading van with goods. The mansion was surrounded by expensive sports cars.
The Jamaican-American rapper is best known for his 2007 single Beautiful Girls, Take You There and his collaboration with Justin Bieber on Eenie Meenie. In 2011, he suffered near-fatal injuries in a jet ski accident.
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, has not had a major label release in more than a decade.
Lawyer Dennis Card, who witnessed the arrest, says it is partly related to a lawsuit he filed against Kingston in February, accusing him of defrauding a Florida company that installed a 232-inch television.
In the lawsuit, Ver Ver Entertainment says =Kingston contacted the company in September about purchasing the television, sold under the brand name Colossal TV, and having it installed at his home. The system costs $150,000.
Kingston allegedly told the owners that if they agreed to a lower down payment and gave him credit, he and Bieber would do commercials for them.
In November, Kingston paid the company $30,000 and the TV was installed, according to the lawsuit but no commercials or further payments were made.
“He is 100 per cent not involved in this,” Mr Card said of Bieber. “He had the misfortune of doing some work in the past with Sean, and Sean drops his name like crazy.”
